EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SCOTT SUTTELL

Employers are taking advantage of new rules under Obamacare in 2014 to “punish smokers and overweight workers,” according to this analysis from Reuters.

Some companies “will even force employees to meet weight goals, quit smoking and provide very personal information or pay up to thousands more annually for health care,” Reuters reports.

Nearly 40% of large U.S. companies will use surcharges in 2014, such as higher insurance premiums or deductibles for individuals who do not complete company-set health goals, according to a survey of 892 employers released in September by human resources consultancy Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers.

“That is almost twice as many as the last time they did the survey in 2011, when only 19 percent of companies had such penalties,” Reuters says. The number is expected to climb to two-thirds of employers by 2015.

Employers are getting more aggressive about punishing workers who are overweight or have high cholesterol. Reuters notes that a study released today by the Obesity Action Coalition, an advocacy group, “covered workers at more than 5,000 companies who must participate in their employer wellness programs to receive full health benefits. Sixty-seven percent also had to meet a weight-related health goal such as a certain body mass index.”

Next year, many more companies plan to penalize workers who use nicotine because of their higher health care costs. For instance, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. “will begin charging such employees an additional $25 per month in 2014 until they have completed a company-paid cessation program.:

"We found that while less than 10 percent of workers at large employers smoke, their impact to health care costs is disproportionately huge," LuAnn Heinen, vice president for the National Business Group on Health, tells Reuters.

A recent Ohio State University study found that businesses pay nearly $6,000 more annually per employee who smokes compared with a nonsmoker.

This and that

Sisters in arms: Count Sandra Pianalto, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, as a strong supporter of Janet Yellen, whose confirmation hearings for the central bank's top job begin Thursday.

Ms. Yellen “has just been a tremendous leader in the Federal Reserve system,” Ms. Pianalto said. “I would very much like to see a capable woman like Janet Yellen” lead the central bank when current chairman Ben Bernanke steps down at the start of next year.

Speaking at a conference on women and finance, held by the Global Interdependence Center at the Philadelphia Fed's building, Ms. Pianalto said if Ms. Yellen is confirmed, it “will make a huge difference in how women are viewed” and it will “move the women's movement forward.”

Money crunch: In many, if not most, of America's major cities, “the revenue that the government needs to operate – to pick up trash, police the streets, pay its workers' pensions – remains far from what it was before the economic crisis.”

So says TheAtlanticCities.com in this story about a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts' American Cities Project, which “paints a grim picture of the financial health of the center cities of America's 30 largest metro regions, municipalities that house one in 10 Americans and that account for nearly half of the country's economic output.”

In 21 of these 30 cities, including Cleveland, “municipal government revenues had not bounced back to their pre-recession levels by 2011, the last year for which data is available,” according to the story.

Cleveland was among the weakest cities, with revenues at only about 86% of their recent peak, according to the Pew data. Sacramento, Calif., was the worst, at 74% of peak revenue. The other Ohio city included in the data, Cincinnati, was at 99% of peak revenue.

City governments, Ms. Bradley writes, “are finding new ways to pay for big projects that will have a transformative effect on infrastructure and the broader economy. Yes, one path is raising taxes. Voters hate taxes in the abstract, but they will tax themselves if they believe the investment has merit, the delivery system is sound, and the returns are likely to be real and large.”

Some cities are “using old financing tools, like bonds, in new ways, or being more creative about stretching existing funds,” she writes. For instance, the Toledo/Lucas County Port Authority raised money through a bond issue to make energy-efficiency improvements in the port.

It's also important “to look for funds outside of a city's balance sheet,” Ms. Bradley writes, and Cleveland provides a key example.

“In Northeast Ohio, philanthropies based in greater Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Canton have pooled money into the Fund for Our Economic Future,” she writes. “Over nine years the Fund has given more than $60 million to regional economic development organizations. In turn, grantees have helped add 10,500 jobs, $333 million in payroll, and $1.9 billion in investments to the multi-metro region.”

Anthony Bennett's 1-21 (4.8%) shooting through seven games “is the worst shooting performance for any NBA player to begin his career since at least 2002-03, according to Stats LLC,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

Nine players began their careers shooting 3-for-23 (14.4%) from the field, including Mike Dunleavy, the third overall pick by Golden State in 2002.

What's worse is that Mr. Dunleavy, a mediocre player who remains in the NBA, is by far the best player on this list. The others: Marko Jaric, J.R. Bremer, Reece Gaines, DeMarre Carroll, Lazar Hayward, Walker Russell Jr., Will Conroy and Joel Freeland.

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